First week in Nicaragua!

Hey beautiful people!! This week has been amazing!! This country is beautiful + the people are even more so. I’ve been so encouraged + refreshed by their joy + ability to be interrupted!! The farm (the hostel + ministry we are staying at + partnering with) is so beautiful + there is a huge heart for ministry, but also for discipleship. Each day we have 5am prayer + 6am devotions. Although there are some sleepy mornings, having the space for two hours of intentional time with the Lord first thing in the morning has been so refreshing!! I’m going to share little parts of my journal entries from this week!! 🙂

Monday, October 7

Hey guys!! About to land in Nicaragua in about 30 minutes!! I’m a little scared + nervous but I am so so excited!! It was really hard to call people for the last time for a while (hopefully will be able to get WiFi + call once a week though!) I am so so blessed.

Tuesday, October 8

First morning in Nicaragua!! Wow!! It is so beautiful here! It’s crazy to me that I’m not in the US, but Nicaragua is a BEAUTIFUL country! We got to sleep in today + have the day to settle ourselves, but tomorrow will start off at 5am! We were so welcomed by O squad (a world race semester squad we overlap with for a week) + everyone here! Our flight went well + customs went pretty smoothly! It was a very easy travel day, praise God! Nicaragua is so green- everywhere you look is bright green from trees + plants! It’s so beautiful! There’s also a mountain right next to the farm that is just so beautiful! There are dogs, chickens, + horses everywhere. like EVERYWHERE. It is such a blessing to be here on the farm! We have running water + BEDS which is such a blessing! We stay in rooms with about ten beds that we share with other teams on our squad! There are 12 dogs on base as guard dogs + for the most part, they are so kind + sweet! I saw a scorpion last night which was a unique experience! (Scorpions, snakes, + spiders(+ tarantulas) are fairly common) Gustavo (one of our guides + translators) had found a rhino beetle that was about the size of my palm which is apparently a baby. I wish everyone could be here to experience this with me + I’m missing everyone a lot, but I’m thankful to have people worth missing! After dinner, we had a worship + testimony night with O squad! It was so cool to hear their stories of how God has worked through them here!

Wednesday, October 9

Hey hey hey!! Today was amazing! I really enjoyed waking up + having two hours of prayer + devotion with the Lord! It is so sweet to have such an intentional refreshing time with Jesus! We went + did prayer walks after breakfast, which is when your team + a guide + a translator go through a neighborhood + share the gospel + encourage + pray over whoever you feel called to! It was such a sweet time! Everyone is so happy + joyful. It was so neat to hear one of the ladies we met talk about all the ways she had been blessed by the Lord. The Nicaraguan’s contentment blows my mind + it honestly humbles me so much. Everyone is also so interruptible. Even the most busy people stopped what they were doing to hear what we had to say + be prayed over. A few of them even invited us into their homes + called their family to come meet us. We met a variety of faith backgrounds, so we were able to share the gospel with some of the people, but also were able to encourage some believers in their faith + walk with the Lord. No matter where they were in their faith, they all seemed to be very hungry for more. One of the Christians we met just kept asking for us to encourage her more + read her more scripture. May I have that hunger + desperation for more of the Lord!! It’s hard because I want to save them all from their situations, but they are happy + all I can do is show them the love of Christ. After lunch, one of my teammates + I did a prayer walk around the farm soccer field! We walked around it seven times (Jericho) + prayed over the people that would play on it! A really cool moment from today: we were sitting to drink some water + a boy named Junior came up to us + sat down! He was asking how to say different things in English, so we traded some vocab! He was so fun to talk to + we got to tell him more about Jesus + pray over him! He walked with us for the final laps! I also got to meet a little girl named Alexis who was so so sweet!! Even though there is a pretty decent language barrier, it was so cool to be able to love on them!!

Thursday, October 10

hi friends! Today was a GOOD day! Some of us got up at 4 to work out before our time with Jesus which was so fun! We worked on the farm this morning! We cleared a place for a road to be built + then raked a

lot of grass in a field! Scott (the host) gave us a devotion on the basics of the gospel!! God is so kind! We went to the hospital after lunch, + honestly that was hard. The hospital was very different from the US + it was hard to see some of that. So many people were hurting + desperate for the love of Christ. It was such a blessing to be able to encourage them + pray over them + read them scripture! We went into the ICU, + prayed over the people there. There was a 19 year old girl named Elysia who was pregnant + her heart had failed. She is going to have an operation tonight, + they don’t expect her to survive. We prayed for healing over her + prayed over her parents.

Friday, October 11

Hey hey hey! Today was a really good day! I was honestly SO sleepy but I powered through! I woke up, did devos + had some time with the Lord, ate a yummy breakfast(normally rice, beans, + scrambled eggs), + then had another devo with Scott! It was about reading the Bible in the context it was written in! Then we headed out for a prayer walk! I was with my team + we had Saul as a guide! We went to two of his friends + were able to have some super sweet conversations + pray over them + their families!! God is so kind!! After lunch I got to help in the kitchen with some squad mates!! It felt so good to actually be in a kitchen doing stuff other then just washing + putting away dishes (although i did do that too)!! We scrubbed + peeled(with a VERY large chefs knife) + cut up about 40kg of potatoes + then cut up ingredients for pico! It felt so good to be in a kitchen again!! After supper we had team time, + I got to share my testimony!! It went very well + was so refreshing!! I’m really missing everyone from home + spent a lot of time going through pictures + videos + audio messages. 🙂 I haven’t been able to talk to anyone from home for a week which has been so hard but it makes me so excited to talk to them later!!

Saturday, October 12

Hey yall!! Today is sabbath!! Praise God! Honestly all I did today was sleep + eat + hang out with people + spend time with the Lord!! It was an amazing + refreshing day!! Praise God for rest!